Via Middle English from Latingentia, which, according to Pliny, was named after Gentius, the last king of Illyria, who supposedly discovered the plant's medicinal benefits. This has been dismissed as folk etymology but the word may still ultimately be of Illyrian origin, as -an is a common suffix in Illyrian words.[1]

On the cover of the leaflet advertising the Alpenrose Gasthof in Zirl am Gurgl […] there is a decorative picture of a young woman. […] She has bright flaxen hair and laughing eyes of the same hue as the gentians in the meadow beyond the inn.

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